Obtain the zip password for the LinkStation firmware image.dat

This article
Based on work by moomoo and frontalot.
Originally by frontalot.
at Linkstationwiki.org

Mike Tsao’s Method

This method of obtaining the image.dat zip password works best if you already have root access to the LinkStation. You also need the ability to extract ramdisk.image.gz from firmimg.bin. For these reasons this method is most useful if a new zip password is used for image.dat (as was the case for stock 1.4x firmwares).<p>

WARNING!

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Please be aware this method involves manually altering parts of the LinkStation’s flash memory. Proceed at your own risk!

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Note

With some tweaking this method should work even if you don’t already have root access to the LinkStation.

1. Obtain the desired firmware and extract ramdisk.image from firmimg.bin. See the appropriate flash ROM analysis for instructions on disassembling firmimg.bin.

4. Create a new unzip with the following contents#!/bin/bashecho “$*” >> /cmdline`real_unzip $*`

5. Make the new unzip executable:chmod a+x unzip

6. Unmount the image and gzip it back up:cd ..gzip −9 ramdisk.image

7. Use the appropriate toolchain to create a new firmimg.bin containing the original firminfo.txt and vmlinux.gz and new ramdisk.image.gz. For the powerpc-hdhlan LinkStation:setsum firminfo.txt vmlinux.gz -r ramdisk.image.gz -o firmimg.bin